RACING FOR THE MOON 



89 



Mr. Moeller. Would it not seem that the public would then expect and Con- 

 gress here in particular would expect that if this shakeup is having any kind of 

 effect at all, it ought to be reflected by the activities of this committee, to push 

 this thing even a little harder and with more money? 



Chairman Brooks. The committee certainly got very favorable comment from 

 its recent actions in apparently pushing the program. 



Mr. Moeller. I don't think we should wait for the President's recommendations. 



Chairman Brooks. We are not 



All along the line, the committee took an aggressive position in 

 support of almost every aspect of NASA's program. This was especially 

 true on Apollo-related activities. With the leadership of Teaguc and 

 Daddario, the Teaguc subcommittee held intensive hearings on the 

 life sciences program. As Teague reported to the full committee: 

 "I think the fact that Mr. Daddario brought this up caused them to 

 search their minds for a more aggressive program than they had in 

 mind." 



shepard's suborbital flight 



It was almost 5 p.m. when the committee finished its markup 

 session on May 4. Members barely had time to grab their overnight 

 bags, rush to Andrews Air Force Base, and enplane for the flight to 

 Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. There they motored to Cocoa Beach to 

 prepare for an early-morning bus ride to Cape Canaveral, where 

 thousands of spectators awaited the first attempt to put a man in 

 space. Alan Shepard's 15-minute suborbital flight seems rather puny 

 today, but to the committee all of the prestige of the Nation and the 

 future of the space program rested on the absolute necessity for its 

 success. 



Meanwhile, back in Washington, Vice President Johnson learned 

 that he would be departing May 8 for a 2- week tour of Southeast Asia. 

 So he ordered NASA and the Department of Defense to have their 

 reports on the future of space in his hands before his departure, necessi- 

 tating round-the-clock work over the weekend even by those officials 

 who made the trip to witness the Shepard flight. 



The members of the committee knew Shepard and the other six 

 Mercury astronauts, had followed their training, voted funds for 

 their support, and had a personal as well as official stake in the success 

 of the flight. The committee strongly opposed the views expressed by 

 Senators John Williams (Republican of Delaware) and J. William 

 Fulbright (Democrat of Arkansas), who had urged President Kennedy 

 either to postpone the flight or close it to the press. The committee 

 supported the view that the open media coverage of every detail of the 

 Shepard and subsequent flights was a real plus in contrast to the Soviet 



